WGA: “The Cost Of Settling Is Reasonable”

As contract talks with the AMPTP enter their final stage, the WGA now says a deal is reachable if the six largest companies share the “small” cost laid out in the writers’ current proposal. In a post filed under “Contract Bulletin 2017” and headlined, “The Cost of Settling is Reasonable,” the WGA says, “The undeniable truth is that these costs are very affordable for these profitable companies.”

Here is the complete text of the post, followed by the accompanying graphic:

“During this negotiation writers have raised legitimate concerns about declining compensation in the face of growing industry profits. The WGA has proposed reasonable solutions that would allow writers to share in a small portion of the success they have helped create. We estimate that our current proposals would cost a total of $156 million annually over the entire industry. For the six largest companies, who collectively reported almost $51 billion in operating profits in 2016, the cost is only $103 million. As detailed in the chart below, the share of this cost for each of our major employers is small. The undeniable truth is that these costs are very affordable for these profitable companies.”

The two sides still were meeting as of 6:40 PM PT at the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers offices in the Valley. Deadline’s David Robb is on the scene and will report any news. Their current three-year contract expires at 12:01 AM on Tuesday.